Hansen Mark Victor - Chicken soup for the soul christmas treasury: holiday stories to warm the heart

CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE SOUL
CHRISTMAS
TREASURY

Holiday Stories
to Warm the Heart

Jack Canfield
Mark Victor Hansen

Backlist, LLC, a unit of

Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC

Cos Cob, CT

www.chickensoup.com

Contents

Penny Porter

1. THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

Gary Swanson

Lt. Colonel Marlene Chase

Steven Dodrill

Laura Lagana

Linda C. Raybern

Cathy Miller

Mary Marcdante

Linda Stafford

Rand Souden

Terry Andrews

Betty Werth

2. THE SPIRIT OF GIVING

Jeanne Williams Carey

Maurice Zolotow

O. Henry

Martha Pendergrass Templeton

Debby Mongeau

Marion Brenish

Linda Snelson

Cathy Novakovich

David R. Collins

Tim Madigan

Marion Bond West

Karen M. Sackett

W. W. Meade

3. YULETIDE MEMORIES

John Doll

Abigail and Jeanne Phillips

Michele Wallace Campanelli

Mickey Bambrick

Margot Brown McWilliams

Tanja Crouch

Penny Porter

Ken Swarner

Jane and Michael Maas

Joan Wester Anderson

Linda DeMers Hummel

Carrie Powell-Davidson

Kristine Byron

Lynne Zielinski

Joan Wester Anderson

4. HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

Jeannie S. Williams

Shawn and Melissa Pittman

Melody Carlson

Gary Lautens

Nancy Rue

5. BOUGHS, HOLLY AND MISTLE... ANEOUS

Dawn Holt

Linda Stafford

Leo Buscaglia

David V. Chartrand

Jay Frankston

Leo Buscaglia

Ernie Witham

Nancy Mueller

Ken Swarner

Barbara Baumgardner

Jane Eppinga

When I was a very little girl, I spent a Christmas holiday at the home of the famed Polar explorer, Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd. His Boston library was decorated with memoirs, maps and artifacts telling of his voyages to the northern- and southern-most tips of the Earth. This Christmas was one of the rare occasions when the admiral made it home for the holidays. With no time to shop, he brought the only gifts he could to his beloved family; walrus tusk carvings, a bearskin rug and three child-sized sealskin jackets crafted by native peoples of icy lands. Each was a token of his love for a wife and children he barely knew.

Arms wrapped around my knees from my place on a whale-skin footstool, I asked him, Do the people who live at the top and the bottom of the world give presents at Christmas, too?

He leaned forward, his blue eyes twinkling beneath snowy brows and white, well-groomed hair. Of course they do, and so do the animals, he said. But not just at Christmas. Take the emperor penguin. When he wants to show his love, he searches for the best rock he can find, picks it up in his flippers, waddles over to the object of his affection and hands it to her. Presents are simply a way of showing the love we feel all the time. I gazed up in awe at this famous man and will never forget the words that came next. Its too bad we cant make every day Christmas.

It is with this spirit of love and giving that this book was created. This book couldnt help but be about love since it focuses on Christmas, the time each year when the heart reaches out to everyone.

Thousands of stories were submitted for consideration in Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas Treasury. We wish we could have published them all. We have picked the most touching and most meaningful stories. To make this the most profound collection of Christmas stories ever, we have also included a few classic Christmas stories from previous Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

We like to think of these stories as heart-tuggers, happenings in a writers life that moved us to such laughter or tears we yearn to tell them again and again so readers will say, I had that same feeling once, too. Now I know I am not alone. Stories like these brighten our lives, and help to restore the warmth and magic we all experience during the Christmas season, and hopefully throughout the rest of the year as well.

So curl up on a cozy couch with your children, grandchildren and friends, and read stories aloud from this beautiful Christmas treasury. Take a journey with us into times gone by. Feel the warmth, listen to the laughter, wipe away the tears, and relive the cherished memories that make lives complete.

With joy in our hearts, we hope these stories will fill your days with the kindness, strength and understanding that come from receiving the greatest gift we can give to others and to ourselves: the gift of love. Then you can go forward and help us make every day another Christmas.

Penny Porter

1
THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

C hristmas is not a time or a season, but astate of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill,to be plenteous in mercy, is to havethe real spirit of Christmas.

Calvin Coolidge

N o one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy,the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul ofa child. The effort of every true education shouldbe to unlock that treasure.

Emma Goldman

The mother sat on the simulated-leather chair in the doctors office, picking nervously at her fingernails.

Wrinkles of worry lined her forehead as she watched five-year-old Kenny sitting on the rug before her.

He is small for his age and a little too thin, she thought. His fine blond hair hung down smooth and straight to the top of his ears. White gauze bandages encircled his head, covering his eyes and pinning his ears back.